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Who every wants to live throw tonight encounter, be sure to bring enough food and soda-pop for everyone.
A well feed DM, is a Happy DM.
A happy DM, creates happy encounters
Happy encounter, result in happy PC
Happy PC, bring foods and drinks.
The great Circle of Life.
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I stand corrected. There is one gm bribe that I have no problems at all with.
You will get [pick random character bonus gp/xp/whatever...] if you bribe the gm by... showing up to the session
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It's funny how people will say that they will never take bribes or will never bribe their GM. On the other hand I have seen many times people will give advice that if a player wants something bad enough they should learn what the GM likes to eat (in other words, bribe the GM).
I see a double standard here.
Though there have been times where we have had games in the past where the GM will give out a little extra XP for extra food brought to a game or if someone pays up for the pizza, I have not seen it lately. On the other hand, we get xp awards here and there so it is hard to tell.
One of my GM's said in the begining that he takes bribe...i do understand what that mean but i'm not sure I agree with that...
I used it once, i had a deck of many tings, lost 10 000xp...and others bad things (I SWEAR I'LL NEVER TAKE CARD AGAIN! WE SHOULD BURN THAT DECK! WE ALMOST DESTROYED AN ENTIRE TOWN OMFG....enyway...)
So i gave him a McCain chocolat cake and i retrieve my XP'S....
On the spot that sounded good, i was chill with that...but somone else diD it too, in order to have an adamantium armor for almost half of the price and i felt injustice....then I tought: Maybe that's what happen when u do it...when i did it, they all felt the same?
So i'm asking: Would you do it? Or as a GM, do you allow bribes? What do you think about it?
I've taken bribes for re-rolls. Generally food, only rarely halfling slaves.
If someone keeps bringing food for everyone, they will also get some benefit.
Oliver understands.
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if i had a DM that accepted bribes, i'd do it. not to get anything excessive though. a free reroll or something is sufficient.
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Who every wants to live throw tonight encounter, be sure to bring enough food and soda-pop for everyone.
A well feed DM, is a Happy DM.
A happy DM, creates happy encounters
Happy encounter, result in happy PC
Happy PC, bring foods and drinks.The great Circle of Life.
Oliver I think you have summed things up far better then I could have. As a GM do I accept bribes? well if offered, I'm not going to turn down a home made chocolate chip cookie....yum......and everyone is happy when the GM is happy.
When it is my turn to bring the snacks food etc. I try to get things I know people like....I know one friend who likes Diet A&W Root beer......I have never touched the stuff........but he likes it.
I may jokingly comment " you know who got you your cheese crackers cookies and fruit for the game.....Should i bring broccoli and Celery without any Dips next time?".......but it is all in jest.
This is a social game we are playing, and quoting the princess bride and the holy grail, joking and talking about the latest Star Treck movie.. and food is apart of the game.....as is slipping the GM a cookie (or carrots if he is on a diet) every now and again to keep him happy (well maybe not the carrots) is also part of the game.
But yes I think Oliver put it better then I.
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Most of our players are kind enough to bring snacks and drinks for the entire group, so individual food bribes are not needed. I wouldn't accept a bribe and at best case offer a reroll to a player for doing something nice for another person in the group. One player recently bought me a Hero Clix's Iron Maiden figure, because he knows I am a Maiden fan. I appreciated that very much. So much, that I created stats for all 9 figures and in the next game, we will open it, see which one it is, and try to kill it. No harm in that type of gift.
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I don't view it as a bribe to give a GM food or beverage. They are doing a brunt of the work when they are preparing a session or running a campaign. If it wasn't for the GM, we would have no game. I buy a drink for every GM that runs for me in PFS, because they are talking a lot and deserve to have their thirst quenched. Do I expect anything for it other than the fun of playing a good game? Nope.
But Paizo does have bribery built into the system: Rerolls. You buy this product, we give you a reroll. However, it's not arbitrary and it's consistent, so I have no complaints about it, just don't look at it for anything that it isn't.
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If anything I think our DM bribes us more than we do him. We get xp for doing those polite things (A 24 is around 1000xp, 2500 if he's all out), and he'll exchange xp for helping out with other things (Bought a new couch, helped move it in, enjoy your 500 xp!). He gave out homebrew artifacts once when we attended an event he was running.
Now in this case, nothing is particularly gamebreaking and I don't think anyone really minds. When used in the more bizarre cases it adds to the fun and encourages us anti-social types to see each other outside of gamenight. Plus, we now have a new couch to sit on whilst saving Golarion, so it's win-win.
Would I bribe him for those +x gloves of y? Probably not, since I wouldn't want the other players to get fancy things just because they dropped more cake than I did. That said, if we were playing that way and everyone was on the up and up, I would bribe like a fiend. As they say in Morrowind, "Bribes are the lubricant of honest commerce"! Besides, what sort of rogue WOULDN'T bribe the authorities, I'm RPing, which I think should earn some extra XP don't ya think? ;)
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In my group, I shamelessly accept bribes of all sorts (sushi is a weakness), but I think it's understood that the return you get is in karma (and an all around happier GM). Maybe the dice will be nicer to you. Maybe I'll subconsciously pick someone else to attack.
I've made it very clear to my players that I play a straight game and pretty much just go by how the dice roll. So while I'll happily accept a bribe, it's with the understanding that I still might kill if the dice decree it.
Or in other words,
Player --> Bribe --> GM --> Dice Gods
My spouse once silenced a room full of tables at Origins when she offered to give the GM a blow job if she survived this next round. His character and several others were dead the next round to crit rolls from ogres.
Lol. When you are down to your last card...
I had a poor player that hosted the group most Fridays and even kept a number of 2 liter of drinks for all. His social skills were so poor that I cannot believe he ever considered this to be a bribe. Strange how he never quite earned the Fickle Finger of Fate.
It's a standing joke with my players as well..."you can bribe him all you want...never gets you anything though!"
I tend to bring lunch to whoever is graciously lending us his/her home for the days gaming...Currently I hit up the local Zips and show up with enough burgers/chicken strips/fries for an army!
This also prompts the other players to show up early too, in hopes of getting food as well!
I get early arriving gamers...all attending are well fed...we all have fun!
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My players know they can bribe me, but in very limited ways. And it's less bribing than it is appeasing me. God have mercy on them if no one brings chocolate milk, cause I sure as hell won't...
In all seriousness though, in general whoever thinks to bring me my weekly dose of chocolate milk will normally get some small bonus for the session. I normally tailor it to the character, so the scholarly character received a +2 bonus on all of his knowledge checks that session (we're playing a campaign where knowledge checks come up fairly frequently to gain significant info). I've also been known to hand out additional plot twist cards if someone's done something for me.
Bonus XP isn't really an option with my group since we run with the whole group staying at the same level, and in some cases actually just do away with XP and I level them when I feel it's appropriate.
I don't see an issue with minor things like this, but yeah, bribing the GM to take back the effects of a Deck of Many Things draw, or to get awesome equipment seems a bit dodgy.
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The deserving and committed should be a higher level.
The most adventurous and accomplished should be the better adventurers.
Bribing anyone is poor form as a player. As a PC not so much, but as a player I put bribing on the same level as PvP. The GM is free to make concessions if some unfortunate circumstance happens to a player and it would slow the game down/ make the other players suffer too. But a good GM only, ONLY does that when absolutely necessary. Courting GM fiats just makes everyone else at the table lose immersion.
If I were the GM in question, I'd feel insulted.
I would never accept bribes, never try to bribe, and never play with the kind of worthless scumbag who accepted them (or associate myself at all with that kind of jerk).Eeep... now I feel ten times as guilty for accepting that one bribe. It didn't hurt the game any I assure you short term or not, but it still didn't feel right afterward.
PS: And I wouldn't accept bribes anymore.
I'm talking about someone like the OP mentioned, who openly states he takes bribes, regularly does so, and gives large XP rewards and other notable, game-affecting rewards for them and the like -- stuff that both smacks of a dishonest character (not something you want in a GM, whom you need to be able to trust) and could in fact be game breaking. It's basically saying, "Give me presents and I'll let you cheat." (It also puts pressure on less financially solvent players to "shell out" when they may not be able to afford the GM's "good favor.")
I'm not going to slam down on someone I don't know for making a mistake once. Nor for silly joke incidents as mentioned otherwise in the thread.
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What Deathquaker isn't telling anyone is that somehow, Oreos or other forms of chocolate mysteriously landed on her end of the table during her campaign, without any form of contact from her. And she likes chocolate a lot :)
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I'd bribe the GM with pizza or sodas only if the whole group got something out of it (free hero point, a treasure map, etc). Solidarity and all that.
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What Deathquaker isn't telling anyone is that somehow, Oreos or other forms of chocolate mysteriously landed on her end of the table during her campaign, without any form of contact from her. And she likes chocolate a lot :)
Except for the part where I told everyone?
My players have joked about bribing me with chocolate, but that has never actually influenced the course of the game, save perhaps keeping me in a happier mood. :)
I mean frankly, y'all have never gotten a damn thing gamewise out of those Oreos, I'm not really sure why you bother. But on the other hand, it does keep me distracted while you guys concoct one of your inevitably overly elaborate plans. :)
Also, when I'm a player, the Oreos also end up at my end of the table because I steal them. You can ask the group I'm playing the dwarf in about that. Really, if there's Oreos in the room, they will end up next to me, there's nothing really anybody can do about it one way or another.
More to the point, all jokes aside, I've never asked for treats nor offered reward for them.
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After glancing through the thread I will add my 2 cp.
The ongoing joke with my Friday night gamers is if you bring the GM (me) cookies from Subway you might not die that night. But that does not guarantee your continued survival in 2 weeks when we meet again.
Besides I have to maintain my Killer GM status. So far one player was in 2 different games and has died once already, no twice in 2 games. He has been close in this game, but I still have hope of renewing my Killer GM #0706/286 status.
Those numbers are from my copies of Rappan Athuk Reloaded and Rappan Athuk Pathfinder Edition.
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I can be bribed, but it must be done in secret and the contract is binding. In college this worked out great.
I'm seeing a lucrative business opportunity here...
I give rewards for any 'bribe' that benefits the game. For every two session recaps a guy writes, he gets a Hero Point. Similar rules apply for making art, buying me coffee (though that has yet to happen, curse those out-of-control players) and providing game resources like rulebooks.
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As a GM, I reward helpfulness. A player who toasts me a couple of sandwiches during the game, makes me a cup of coffee, or helps me pack up after the session gets a small amount of bonus XP. It's never much, but I find they're usually willing to help out in exchange for it. Though I have been accused of favouritism because my boyfriend happens to do all those things, and get a few hundred bonus XP per session. :P
One player recently offered to laminate all the spell cards I've been making for the casters (about 200 of them so far). I'll probably reward his fighter with an extra potion or something, since that's a big task. He also brings a bag of jelly snakes to each session for me, which he jokingly calls his bribe. We're pretty relaxed, but I wouldn't accept serious bribes. 50 XP for a snack is one thing, bribes for big in-game changes is different.
Give them a free feat or +2 permanent hp.
DM bribes are awful, and should not be allowed.
We had two DM's, whom ran different games, but played in each other's games. They would constantly give each other's character free XP, loot, etc for stupid things like, bumming a cigarette, get them a beer, etc. "Hey man, I'll give your character in my game 500 xp if I can bum a cig..."
This got out of hand REAL fast, and the rest of the table almost staged a mutiny.
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As a GM I am partial to homemade chocolate chip cookies. Except that I bake them myself and share them not only with my gaming table, but also nearby tables.
My wife plays in my games. She has vast opportunities to bribe me that other players lack. I wouldn't want accusations of favoritism. Likewise for when I play in the games that she runs.
Seriously, the game is to have fun, and bribery is not fun.
I stand corrected. There is one gm bribe that I have no problems at all with.
You will get [pick random character bonus gp/xp/whatever...] if you bribe the gm by... showing up to the session
on time and
ready to play and
remembered to bring your own dice and writing implements and yes, it has to be said....
remembered to bring your character sheet.
I do have one weakness as a GM. I let details slide if the players amuse me.
PLAYER: I need to check a rule with you. See this feat? It has two possible interpretations: a tame way and a wild way. Which interpretation should I use?
ME: The wild way is over the top, but it would amuse me to see it in action. Let's go with that.
or
PLAYER: As the dragon does his flyby attack on the party at the base of the cliff, my character, who is halfway up the cliff, is going to jump on the dragon and grab on.
ME: Okay, ready an action. Landing on the dragon will be an Acrobatics skill check, DC 30. Grabbing it will be a Combat Maneuver--no, that won't work, the dragon's CMD is too high. Besides, you aren't trying to immobilize it. Make it a Ride check, DC20, to hang on.
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I'm trying to figure out the logistics of bribing myself.
I'm trying to figure out the logistics of bribing myself.
Don't. The bribes you require to keep yourself happy will skyrocket, so you won't be able to afford them any more before you know it...
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Most of the bribes I received were from women players who wanted some sort of special treatment or item. I was a randy bastard in college.
:'D
Bad idea and I would neither accept bribes or give them.
The closest I would come would be rewarded a player for displaying more than the required interest in the setting for the purposes of the game: i.e. sending their character to the library to learn more about the Third Goblin War, which recently came up in conversation with an NPC. That sort of thing makes me happy and I will reward it with some adventure slightly more tailored to that specific character, or some "accidental" discoveries that give them an edge.
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Why would I bribe the GM? It's him who bribes me from time to time with extra XP to help new players create character. He also bribes players with extra xp and re-rolls to write down reports from sessions.
Contributing to overall quality of everyone's fun is also rewarded with bonus xp or re-rolls.
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Okay, all the naysayers need to settle down for a bit. I'm seeing potential here. Don't call it a "bribe." Look at it instead as a barter system. Fun, open-ended gaming in exchange for food, drink...and apparently, in the case of at least one player, naughty time. I'm not sure this is as bad as some of you are making it out to be.
Those lawfuls need to loosen up! What would Cayden do?
I allow some minor extras for the players who bring me Snickers, such as tips on solving a riddle or the city guards being slightly less uncooperative than usual.
Also, everyone gets 1 free reroll on the next session after their birthdays.
Then again, the Dungeon Master (from the D&D cartoon) does make actual appearances in my games on occasion, so I suppose it's all within our gaming style.
I think it's a problem when someone is able to make their characters more powerful in-game by, when you get down to it, dropping cash (spending money on cakes, alcohol, etc.) when someone else may not be able to do so.
If only one person can it's unfair, and if everyone's doing it then it's not really bonus xp anymore, is it? You have to bribe the GM just to keep up.
Give rp rewards.
Take bribes for very minor rewards.
Be generous and cheerful with all players.
It all can work out.
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Actual bribes? no, that's a really silly idea. I mean, we are friends, we share our food. Besides, all of us are there to have fun. If a player *really* has a game breaking issue with something we talk about it and fix it.
There was this one RISK game someone in our gaming group won by bribing everyone else with food ("so the deal is, you give me a brownie, and I'll let you conquer France. You ok with that?"). But since the entire GM/player relationship in roleplaying games is already a bit weird when used between equals, we never stretch the limitations of how far we can go with it.
France for a brownie. I guess croissants couldn't buy France for the French.
By no means to I think it's a system that will totally break a gaming group and prevent fun from happening. As with all things, if everyone in the group think it makes the game environment more fun, sure. In a stable group where everyone's been playing for a long time and you aren't likely to drop/pick up players that may not be comfortable with this, by all means.
For me, though, it breaks the "magic circle" of the gaming table by having things that happen out of game what goes on in game, which I don't like out of principle. Additionally, because I run at school, we have some people going out of state for the summer, new player coming in, old ones graduating, or just people becoming too busy, and while it's not quite a revolving door, I need to make sure I don't make my more regular players used to a "rule" that new players might not be comfortable with.
Yeah I can agree with that. The best bribes are bribes to the whole group. Someone really feeds everyone else, and then gets a small reward.
Risk, on the other hand... appeasement in a completely legitimate aspect of open war.
Risk is a serious game.
I think it's a problem when someone is able to make their characters more powerful in-game by, when you get down to it, dropping cash (spending money on cakes, alcohol, etc.) when someone else may not be able to do so.
If only one person can it's unfair, and if everyone's doing it then it's not really bonus xp anymore, is it? You have to bribe the GM just to keep up.
This seems to be the entire system that games played online, from independent RPGs and RTSs, to all the stuff from Playdom and Zynga, are based on. They're free to play. However, if you want to pay to play, you can play even better than the free people.